The November 2018 Ride of the Month is David Clemenz's 1969 Super Cobra Jet Eliminator!

Finders Keepers

Never let the good ones go..

David Klemenz's dad bought his first Mustang in October of 1968. It was a '68 Sprint with special paint. In 1972 he sold it. A growing family meant that a new station wagon would be a better choice. But he regretted selling that Mustang....

In '77 he found another '68 Mustang fastback and, with his two sons it became a family project. Together, they would scour swap meets and junk yards in search of parts to fix up the 'stang, and they found some really neat stuff to bring home. David tell us; "My dad was always working on cars with my brother (tinman) and me growing up. From swapping a Corvair motor in a VW camper to fixing up and restoring the Mustang."

David tells about his first Cougar find; "One of those adventures led to the purchase of our first Cougar. It was a 68 390 XR7 in pretty good shape. After the Mustang was restored, work began on the Cougar. We also acquired two other '68 XR7s (1 an X code) that were parted out. Our first project was installing a 428 Cobra Jet, and a heavy duty C6. With 3.25 posi, it would boil the tires!"

"The Cougar was given to my brother for his first car at 16 and he drove it daily to school and work in all weather for a few years. It was a challenge in the rain and especially the snow. Sometimes the front tires would lock, and the rear tires would push the car forward when trying to stop. Then two and a half years later when I turned 16 it became my daily driver."

"We upgraded to a 31 spline 3.91 traction lock to help walk it out from the stoplight drags. That Cougar destroyed all the cool cars in the high school parking lot for 4 years straight! It's victims range from multiple small block Camaros and Novas, to 383 Roadrunners, 440 Chargers, 455 Cutlass and stage 1 GS Buick. It was fun times for sure. After torturing the competition, we painted the 68 Cougar and started showing it."

And unlike so many high school cars that got away, David and his family still have the '68 Cougar. David learned the lesson from his father: don't let the good ones go. "Our other cars are a '67 Shelby GT350 with a Paxton, '97 Mustang Cobra with nitrous, '69 Mach I, '91 mustang LX, and a few that are being still worked on '86 SVO, '85 mustang GT, '69 351 Eliminator and our '68 XR-7. Tinman (my brother) also has a yellow/black 351/fmx Eliminator. " A pretty impressive list of fast Fords.

It was in the mid 80's that David's brother saw a yellow Cougar; "My brother found the '69 Eliminator just driving down the road one day. The yellow caught his eye and after further investigation it was a R code 428 CJ car. Back then they were just old cars and after a few weeks of negotiating we put our money together and made the purchase. It wasn’t running, had headers and old drag slicks on it. Showing only 40k miles the car was in fairly good shape, but probably had a hard life up to then. When we popped the hood the first thing to catch our eye was the big oil cooler right in front. Checking the door tag confirmed the V axle code. After a few weeks the Eliminator had a new home. A big plus was it still retained most of the rare SCJ parts, VIN stamped C6 and 3.91 N case rear. The odometer showed only 40K, the body was fairly straight and still wears the original side stripes to this day. The interior was unrestored and original."

Aside from the obvious performance benefits, that V code 3.91 : 1 axle ratio meant this Eliminator was something even more special. Starting February 20th of 1969 the V code axle was only available as part of the Drag Pak option. When you ordered the $155.50 Drag Pak you got more than just the 3.91 ratio. Your 428 Cobra Jet turned into a Super Cobra Jet. Included were forged GT 40 Lemans connecting rods, forged aluminum pistons, an external oil cooler, and an external balancer to offset the heavier connecting rods.

Considering the Eliminators less than leisurely life, it seemed like a good idea to go through the engine. The 428 SCJ was rebuilt with new forged pistons, ARP cap screws, Crane cam and springs ,roller rockers. The final assembly was balanced and blueprinted. The factory carb, and exhaust manifolds were reinstalled. An electronic pickup was installed in the factory distributor. The goal was to keep the car stock appearing but make it run a little stronger. The C6 got a TCI converter and a valve body shift kit. The 31 spline traction lock was replaced with a Detroit Locker.

The results were worth the trouble. "The first runs back at the track in the early 1990s netted low 13s, but leaving was a problem. We enjoyed entertaining the neighbors with burnout runs up and down the streets. In 1996 the Eliminator was photographed by a professional auto journalist and appeared in several books and calendars. Even though we regularly went to car shows, It has been awhile since we have been able to get back to the track, as kids baseball and soccer games took precedence over the past 20 years, but a set of Caltrac bars were installed and a new Torque converter is planned to get the Drag Pak into the mid 12s.

The drag strip isn't the only place you might get to see David's SCJ Eliminator. David tells us: "We used to take our '68 to the local Cougar shows in the 1980s, and started showing the Eliminator in 1990. It made its return to the drag strip at the Ford Motorsport Nationals and attended other local shows as well as SAAC 21 and SAAC 25. It was in a few calendars and coffee table books in the mid 90s to early 2000s. But raising families put a dampener the show seen for a few years. It did get back on the road a few years ago and we attended the 2015 Cougar Nationals in Sturbridge, Mass and since then have been very active in most of the local shows and cruises. With our kids now in their 20s and a teen, they have more interest in working on. and taking the cars to cruises and shows."

When asked about the SCJ Eliminators best attribute David told us; The long smokey burnouts! The fact that it is one of 66 R code Drag Pak Eliminators and being such a rare car people really enjoy seeing it."

In addition to owning one very rare Cougar, Davis also has the paper work to match, including the build sheet and original dealer invoice. Although the Eliminator was ordered for Dealer stock, it was sold in less than 30 days. We have to believe that one test drive was enough to convince a buyer that this was the car to have back in the summer of '69. In addition to the thunder under the hood, a look at the options list shows that this Eliminator checked all the right boxes, Decor interior, Console, Power front Disc Brakes and power steering, and an AM radio to play the latest Top 40 hits. The total at the bottom of the sticker, $4422.50 delivered an incredible performance value.